Month: April 2008

The Vancouver Canucks played themselves out of a playoff spot tonight. Losing 2-1 to the Edmonton Oilers, the loss eliminated them from the post season. It wasn’t one of those amazing sprints down the wire where a team just falls one win short. In their last seven games, they managed just one win, a measly two points, just when every other single team in their division was clawing for points. If they had just gone .500, they would have been in a much better position tonight. Hell, even if they had lost the last seven games in shootouts, that would have been ok.

Nevertheless, I am going to the final home game of the season on Saturday evening where the Canucks will face the Calgary Flames. The prices appeared to have dropped quite a bit since the last time I checked. I got lower bowl seats, 4th row even, for $129 each, just $20 over face value. Considering nosebleed seats were going for over $200 just a few days ago, that’s a steal.

I am going of course, solely for the reason that this very well maybe Trevor Linden’s final home and NHL game. As of this writing, he’s hasn’t said anything about retiring yet but if he retires during the summer, I don’t have a time machine to go back to his last game.

If this indeed is his last game, I’ll be pleased that I was able to see it in person. I was there when he played his first home game after being traded back to the Canucks in 2001. The tickets cost me $35 back then and that was using a broker. The Canucks played the Blackhawks that night in November. I got there early to watch the warmup. I’d never heard that much applause for a player just because he took the ice to warmup. There were “welcome back Linden” signs everywhere. Linden was the second star of the game that night.

So after taking a six year break from attending Canucks games, I’ll be going back on Saturday. Retirement or not, I hope the game will be memorable and fun to watch.

I wrote in a previous post how the general manager at Joeys on Burrard offered to make up for a horrible dining experience I had a few weeks ago. Tonight, I took up his offer and returned to the original crime scene.

Now granted, I gave him a day’s worth of warning, so he told me there’d be a table for myself and my buddy Ron when I got there at 7pm. I got there first and there was a big lineup at the restaurant. I overheard a wait time of about 30 minutes. When I got to host and hostess station, I told them my name. The hostess perked up immediately and said my table was ready for me. Since it was a bit of a contrived evening, I got to bypass the waiting time, which was fine by me. The hostess led me to a table by the window, which I was pleased with.

Since Ron wasn’t there yet, I sat next alone with my menu. A few moments later, Kent the manager came by to meet me. He sat down and we discussed matters for a few minutes before Ron arrived. Kent introduced himself and then left us to our menus.

To make a long story short, we ordered some ahi tuna tacos for appies and we each had a 7 oz. tenderloin steak for mains. The food was quite nicely prepared and tasted excellent. This was a far cry from my last meal, which took too long to arrive and tasted very bland when it finally did arrive.

Both Kent and our server checked up on us several times during the evening to ensure everything was to our liking. I thought the whole meal was great. When I asked for the bill, we were told it was on the house, which was a very nice gesture on their part.

The important question now of course is how will my dining experience go the next time I visit Joeys? The next time just being a regular, run of the mill guest where they won’t be trying extra super hard to win back my confidence.

Stay tuned!

At work, I leave my cell phone on my desk in plain view of anyone who walks by. Twice this week, I’ve had people come by and say, “Man, that phone is old. When you gonna get a new one?” My current cell phone is the one you see above, it’s a Siemens M55 that I bought off Ebay in 2005. It’s only my second cell phone ever. I first got a cell phone in 2000 if you can believe it and pretty much didn’t use it until 2005.

Anyways, I don’t see why I need to get a new cell phone just because it’s over three years old. My current phone let’s me talk to people over a GSM network and I can send/receive text messages. That’s all that I really need from a cell phone. Plus my phone is quite small measuring only 4 x 1.8 x 0.8 in.

Sure I’m missing still and video camera features but other than making my own amateur porn, is there any other reason to have that on a cell phone? I suppose it would be neat to listen to MP3s with my phone but unless I’m willing to shell out big bucks for those 4Gb models, there’s really not a lot of storage space on your average cell phone.

Yep, I think I’m going to stick with my current phone for just a little longer. Having said that, I just surfed on over to a list of unlocked GSM phones for sale. Maybe that wasn’t a great idea.

Though the date is the first of April, I assure you this post is no joke. A few weeks ago, I wrote a post where I saw the body of a deceased gentlemen lying in the street where he had died after getting hit by a private bus. Today, again on my way home, I saw another dead body.

My bus was nearing the Barnet Highway, where Hastings St. splits off to Inlet Drive. At that corner, right next to the Chevron station, I saw two RCMP police cruisers. Both had their lights on and they were blocking off a portion of the road. Yellow crime scene tape had already blocked off a portion of the street and the sidewalk. Lying on the sidewalk was what appeared to be the body of tall man. He had a white plastic sheet covering his body but some dark shoes poked out from underneath.

There were no ambulances and no other signs of emergency personnel, save the police. As my bus drove by slowly, things seemed pretty calm. I watched the news tonight to see if there would be any mention of this, there was none. None of the local newspaper web sites mentioned it either. I wonder what happened here?